Garlic Pepper Tea: A Natural and Organic Pesticide

Are you looking for a natural and organic pesticide? As a gardener, I occasionally have run-ins with insects, especially aphids. When this happens, I have a safe and natural way to dispatch these devils. Garlic Pepper Tea. Every summer I put together a batch of Garlic Pepper Tea and in no time at all insect infestations are gone.

A while back I may have mentioned that I was growing some garlic and a few peppers. Just before we moved, I pulled all of the garlic from the garden and dragged it to the balcony of my temporary apartment. I left it there for a couple of weeks.

Once it had finished drying, I trimmed the tops and roots. This left me with a basket full of garlic.

My peppers were in a pot, so they came with me too. The pepper harvest has been a little weak ~ likely due to the move. Still, I was able to pluck a few for this recipe.

This recipe will make 1 gallon of Garlic Pepper Tea Concentrate.

Take 2 bulbs of garlic and 2 hot peppers and add them to a blender. I’m using jalapenos, but serrano or habanero peppers will work too.

Fill the blender jar a little over half-way with water. Put the lid on the blender and blend on high. It isn’t a bad idea to wear rubber gloves and some sort of glasses or goggles to protect your eyes. This is powerful stuff, folks.

Blend until it turns to liquid. Carefully strain the solids. You will now have a very strong solution. Pour the tea into a clean 1 gallon container (I’m using an empty vinegar jug) and fill to the top with water.

This is now 1 Gallon of Garlic Pepper Tea Concentrate.

To make a spray to kill aphids, white flies, spider mites, and other pests, mix 1/4 C. of the Garlic Pepper Tea Concentrate per gallon of water. Add to any spray bottle (affiliate) and apply to infested plants.

Usually one gallon of concentrate is all I need for most of the growing season. Economical, safe and easy.

And best of all, your garden will smell like salsa. And, it’s adios to these pests.

Would this work for ants? Ants have taken over my little garden area, climbing and crawling all over the plants and veggies. Of course, they may be there eating aphids or something I haven’t noticed, but I’d love to get rid of them. How often can you spray this? We’ve had rain almost daily for the past few weeks or so. Would it need to be reapplied after rain? Thanks for sharing this recipe!

Icing sugar ( powdered sugar) mixed with bicarbonate of soda ..place it by the ant hills ..they will find it. They eat it and the bicarbonate mixes with the stomach acid and as and can’t pass the gas it creates and they blow apart The queen eats solid food only so mix some of the powder mix with an egg yolk. Place this for the workers ants to take back into the nest and you’ll get the same result with the queen. If you know where the nest is, pour boiling water into it. This doesn’t guarantee killing the queen.

What a great post. I am going to make some up immediately. I will definitely be trying it on ants so I will let you know how it works. Glad you were able to benefit a little from your garden. Your garlic is beautiful.

Hi Leslie, I am so excited to get this recipe. I am wondering if you have had any problems with Japanese Beetles and if this will work on them? They are my arch enemy! Thanks so much. I am pinning this. I am also following. I can’t wait to read about fermenting garlic. I am just learning about fermented foods and their nutritional value. Have a wonderful day! Love,Wanda

wow…what a great natural idea…something ate our entire little crop of strawberries this year! It was great until this year…our blackberries are about to pop and I don’t want the same thing happening to them now is this only for flowers or for edibles as well!

I have to keep my Hibiscus plants indoors during the winter, well 6 months out of the year! They end up completely covered in aphids and it drives me crazy!!! I am going to give this a try in the fall and see if I can keep those nasty things out of my bathroom 🙂

Hello! I live in South Texas and I have a basil plant and some ivy hanging on my front porch. I have these leafhopper/sharpshooter bugs that are plaguing my plants. Do you think this would work for them?

Lily, Thanks for the questions. Tomato hornworms are huge so you might have to be diligent in application. But, they won’t like it. I like to store my Garlic Pepper Tea concentrate in the fridge if I have a lot left over.

Thank you for this recipt~ I was wondering if there is a certain stage in the plants life cycle you shouldnt be spraying the plants.. is it ok to get it on the plant even? or just in the dirt? will it make the food taste like garlic and peppers?

It should be safe to spray at any part of the plant’s life cycle. For the Garlic Pepper Tea to be effective, it must be sprayed directly onto the plant. Once washed, there should be not residual taste.

I am always looking for new organic ideas to take aphids of the milkweed we plant for monarch butterflies. This might be a good idea to use on plants with no eggs/caterpillars but it would need to be rinsed off before the monarchs would use the plants again.

I live in Texas. Some summers we will have quite a lot of fleas and some not so many. It is hard to leave my little dogs out to play because they get them and then I have to bathe them….way to often. Do you know if it will kill fleas or chase them away?

It would depend on the bug’s stage of life. If you can hit it early, yes. At maturity, it would be hit or miss. What happens when insects eat leaves coated in the Tea, it’s hot and it burns – so they don’t continue eating and lay eggs.

Will this kill things like harvestman spiders and catterpillars? I dont want to kill butterfly catterpillars but my citrus plants have been attacked by very small green catterpillars, those id like to kill. Also, slugs, what about them? Sorry to bombared you with so many questions.

A great way to kill slugs is to leave some beer out in a small container set in the ground, like a tuna fish can or individual applesauce container. They are attracted to it, climb in and die happy! We have a huge amount of alcoholic slugs at our house. My husband is getting a bit upset that they are using up his beer!

This is great. I am a new”ish” organic gardener (3rd season). Do you think this will work for slugs? My horseradish is growing back after winter dieback…and these nasty buggers are after my new growth!!!

I saw that someone else asked about using this to deter Japanese Beetles. They are so destructive. I would like to know if anyone has tried the garlic pepper tea on them. I am desperate to find something before the arrive.

I’m a little confused. You said that 1 gallon lasts you an entire season but that you also use it all at once? So do we make this to store it or make small batches? Also do you spray this everyday or every other day?

Because you use so little, it can last a while. If you’re using it daily, it should be fine because you’ll use it up pretty fast. I’ve stored mine a few times when it lasted really long, but we mostly use it up.

How long do you think the concentrate would last? Kept in a cold location do you think it would last over the winter? My challenge is deer and rabbits with a few aphids thrown in. I’ve been using a mix of hot pepper sauce and lemon flavored dish soap which seems to be working ok but I think your mix might be even better. Not sure would go through an entire gallon before the end of our season in Eastern Washington.